System and method for distributing information through cooperative communication network sites

ABSTRACT

Information pertaining to products made by manufacturers and sold to consumers through retailers, is distributed to consumers through a communication network that connects consumer communication nodes to a cooperative network site having an accumulation of information about manufacturer product offers and retailer special deals. A consumer can obtain selected items of this information without knowledge of how to reach the cooperative network site, by simply logging in to a manufacturer network site or to a retailer network site. At a manufacturer site, the consumer can obtain a list of local retailers carrying the manufacturer offers and can then select from among the offers and receive complete details of the selected offers. At a retailer site, the consumer can obtain a list of manufacturer offers available at the retailer stores in the consumer&#39;s area, and can then select from among the available offers and receive their complete details.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This Application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.09/505,632 filed Feb. 16, 2000, now U.S. Pat. No. 8,224,691 which is acontinuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/873,974 filed Jun.12, 1997 (which issued as U.S. Pat. No. 7,966,222) each of which arehereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates generally to systems for delivering promotionaland other information to consumers who shop in retail establishmentsand, more particularly to systems for delivering incentives and relatedinformation to consumers via a computer network that links the consumersto network sites provided by product retailers and by productmanufacturers. The invention is disclosed in the context of thesupermarket packaged goods industry, but it will be appreciated as thisdescription proceeds that the invention also has application in othercontexts.

In the packaged goods industry, a relatively small number of majormanufacturers supply goods to a much larger number of retailersthroughout the country. Both the manufacturers and the retailers have aneed to communicate to consumers with respect to currently offered“special” or “deal” items that are available in selected areas. Thegoals of the manufacturers and retailers in this regard are similar andsometimes overlapping, but are not usually identical. Manufacturers maywish to offer incentives in the form of discount coupons, rebates, freesamples, contests, sweepstakes and so forth, and may also wish todistribute product information, recipes, questionnaires and surveys,audio messages, and other forms of advertising. Retailers, on the otherhand, may wish to offer price markdowns for specific manufacturers'products, or may also wish to distribute advertising informationpertaining to the retailers' special features being offered.Manufacturers' offers are typically national in scope, whereasretailers' specials are generally local to a specific geographicalregion.

There is a trend toward the establishment of Internet sites by bothmanufacturers and retailers of packaged goods. Each such site or “Webpage” provides a wealth of information about a specific manufacturer ofretailer, and also provides an alternative way of distributing incentiveand advertising information to consumers who also have access to acomputer network. Traditional channels for the distribution of incentiveoffers and other forms of advertising are the newspaper, magazine,television and radio media. Of these, the print media provide the mostcommon and familiar way of distributing advertising and incentives inthe form of discount coupons, free samples, and the like. Discountcoupons may also be distributed in retail stores, either from kiosks orat the checkout stand in response to the consumer's purchase of somepreselected item or items. The latter technique is well documented inprior patents issued to the same assignee as the present application;e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 4,723,212, “Method and Apparatus for DispensingDiscount Coupons.”

Although a consumer may locate any manufacturer's offers or retailer'sto product “specials” by exploring each of the manufacturers' andretailers' computer Web sites, most consumers will not have ready accessto all of these sites and will not normally be motivated to search forspecial product deals or other promotions in this manner. One possiblesolution is to provide a central cooperative network site having adatabase of retailer specials and manufacturer offers. Once connected tothe cooperative site, the consumer can locate retailer specials andmanufacturer offers available in a selected geographical area,designated by postal code. A drawback to this approach is thatestablishment and maintenance of the cooperative site must be welladvertised to attract a large number of consumers, but retailers andmanufacturers are understandably reluctant to promote a cooperativecentral site that will potentially provide consumers with informationabout competitive retailers or competitive manufacturers' products.Accordingly, there has been a trend toward the establishment ofindependent network sites for both manufacturers and retailers. Whilethis trend is understandable, since it addresses the need for eachmanufacturer to provide information about its own products, and for eachretailer to identify its own special deals, an arrangement of multiple,completely independent network sites for manufacturers and retailersdoes not efficiently deliver information to a large number of consumers.

It will be appreciated, therefore, that there is still need forimprovement in the manner in which incentives, promotions and otherinformation are delivered to consumers outside of the environment of aretail store. The present invention addresses this need.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention resides in a method and system for deliveringproduct offers and related information to consumers over a communicationnetwork. Briefly, and in general terms, the method of the inventioncomprises the steps of storing the conditions of manufacturer offers,pertaining to multiple product manufacturers, in a database associatedwith a cooperative communication network site; storing the conditions ofretailer special deals, pertaining to multiple retailers, in thedatabase associated with the cooperative communication network site; andproviding information to from the database to a consumer in response toa consumer request made from a consumer communication node connected tothe communication network, but without regard for whether the consumercommunication node is logged in to the cooperative communication site,or to a retailer or manufacturer network site, or to anotherindependently administered network site.

In the context of the present invention, the terms “log in” or “log on”mean connecting to, or simply viewing, a selected server site When“logging in” to a server site, a consumer may also supply requestedinformation to the site, but not necessarily.

More specifically, the step of providing information from the databaseincludes receiving a query from a consumer logged in to a network siteof a manufacturer; then, in response to the query from the consumer,providing a geographically limited list of retailers having specialdeals pertaining to product offers made by the manufacturer. The nextsteps of the method are receiving offer selection data from the consumerthrough the manufacturer network site, and either transmitting detailsof the selected offers to the manufacturer network site for use by theconsumer, or linking the consumer directly to a selected retailernetwork site to view the available offers.

Alternatively, the method may include receiving a query from a consumerlogged in to a network site of a retailer; then, in response to thequery from the consumer, providing a list of manufacturer offersavailable at the retailer; and later receiving offer selection data fromthe consumer through the retailer network site, and transmitting detailsof the selected offers to the retailer network site for use by theconsumer. The step of providing manufacturer offers may further includetargeting offers based on consumer demographic data or personalpreferences previously established by the consumer, and including in theprovided manufacturer offers at least some that are specific to theconsumer who made the query, based on the consumer's profile. Further,the targeted offers may be formatted into a personal page producedspecifically for the consumer based on his or her personal preferences.The step of providing manufacturer offers may also include receivingfrom the consumer an identification code used by the consumer in makingretail purchases; using the consumer identification code to target toincentives based on the consumer's prior shopping behavior; andincluding in the provided manufacturer offers at least some that arespecific to the consumer who made the query, based on the retrievedinformation pertaining to the consumer's prior shopping behavior.

In accordance with another aspect of the invention, the method furtherincludes receiving the consumer's a postal code; and using theconsumer's postal code to customize the information provided to theconsumer's local geographical area. The postal code provides a key toaccess internal or external sources of geo-demographic data, from whichtargeted information can be generated for transmission to the consumer.

The invention may also be defined as an interactive communication systemfor distributing information to consumers through a communicationnetwork sites having at least one manufacturer communication networksite, administered by a manufacturer of products sold to consumersthrough retailers, and at least one retailer communication network site,administered by a retailer of products purchased from manufacturers andsold to consumers. The interactive communication system comprises acooperative communication network site including a database containinginformation pertaining to manufacturer offers to consumers and retailerspecial deals for consumers; at least one consumer communication nodeconnected to the communication network and logged in to a communicationnetwork site selected from the manufacturer site, the retailer site andthe cooperative site; means at the cooperative communications node, forreceiving a consumer request made through the consumer communicationnode, even if the consumer node is not logged in to the cooperativecommunication site directly; means at the cooperative communicationnode, for responding to the consumer request by providing product offerinformation stored in the database; and means installed at cooperatingmanufacturer and retailer sites, for providing communication linkagebetween the cooperative communication node and a consumer node logged into one of the manufacturer or retailer sites, whereby the consumer nodereceives the product offer information as if logged in directly to thecooperative communication node.

More specifically, in the interactive communication system the means forresponding to a consumer request includes means, operative when therequest is made through a manufacturer site, for transmitting a list ofretailers having special deals pertaining to product offers made by themanufacturer associated with the site through which the request wasconnected. Alternatively, the means for responding to a consumer requestincludes means, operative when the request is made through a retailersite, for transmitting a list of manufacturer offers available at theretailer associated with the site through which the request wasconnected. The manufacturer offers may be targeted or non-targeted. Inone embodiment of the invention, for generating targeted offers, themeans for transmitting a list of manufacturer offers includes aconsumer-specific database for use in selecting offers based on consumerdemographic data, or on product preferences expressed by the consumer,or on past shopping activity of the consumer.

Another aspect of the invention may be defined as a method fordistributing purchase incentives to consumers over a communicationnetwork, comprising the steps of storing data pertaining to purchaseincentives in a database associated with a purchase incentive serversite coupled to the network; and, for at least one purchase incentive,displaying an advertising banner on at least one independent commercialnetwork site, for viewing by consumers; and, in response to selection ofthe banner by a consumer logged in to the independent commercial networksite, providing a purchase incentive directly to the consumer forviewing and printing, whereby the consumer can obtain a selected productincentive directly while logged in to the commercial site. Morespecifically, this method is used in a presently preferred embodiment ofthe invention to distribute manufacturer product purchase incentives toconsumers. The method may also include the step of conditioning the stepof providing a product purchase incentive on receipt of registrationinformation from the consumer. Thus, as in the distribution of offersdescribed above, distribution of incentives using the advertising bannermay also be targeted or non-targeted. Non-targeted distribution meansthat an incentive or other information is distributed without regard towho the consumer is or where the request for information originates.Targeted distribution may be conditioned on demographic data, consumerprofile data provided by the consumer, or consumer purchasing behavior.In addition, targeted distribution resulting from use of an advertisingbanner may also make use of the identity of the commercial site fromwhich the banner was selected. In other words, an offer may beconditioned in some way on the identity of the commercial site that theconsumer was connected to when the request was made using theadvertising banner. For example, a consumer connected to a retailer sitemay be treated differently from a consumer connected to a non-retailersite.

It will be appreciated from the foregoing that the present inventionrepresents a significant advance in techniques for distribution ofinformation to consumers using a communication network. In particular,the invention, provides for the distribution of information in responseto consumer requests, regardless of whether the requests are made whilelogged in to a manufacturer network site, a retailer network site, or acooperative network site or another third-party site The invention alsoencompasses the distribution of purchase incentives directly to aconsumer who logs in to an independent commercial site and selects abanner advertising a specific product incentive. Other aspects andadvantages of the invention will become apparent from the following moredetailed description, taken in conjunction with the accompanyingdrawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is block diagram illustrating the interconnection of multiplecomputer networking sites in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a flowchart depicting a typical interaction between theinterconnected network sites and a consumer logged in to a manufacturernetwork site;

FIG. 3 is a flowchart depicting a typical interaction between theinterconnected network sites and a consumer logged in to a retailernetwork site;

FIG. 4 is block diagram showing three techniques for maintaining adatabase of retailer specials at a cooperative network site;

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing two techniques for maintaining adatabase of manufacturer offers at a cooperative network site;

FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing a menu structure presented to a toconsumer using a personal page feature; and

FIG. 7 is a block diagram showing implementation of a “value banner” toprovide an offer or incentive directly to a consumer.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

As shown in the drawings for purposes of illustration, the presentinvention pertains to an interconnected system of networked sites, and amethod for its use, for efficient delivery of manufacturer offers andretailer “specials” to consumers accessing the interconnected systemthrough a computer or similar device. Prior to this invention, aconsumer with communication network access would have to access anappropriate site in order to obtain manufacturer offer information orretailer special deal information. More specifically, the consumer wouldneed to know the network addresses for all of the manufacturers whoseoffers were of interest to the consumer, and the network addresses ofall of the retailers whose special deals were of interest.Alternatively, the consumer could access the desired information bydirect access to a cooperative site containing all the manufacturer andretailer information.

In accordance with the invention, a database of manufacturer offers andretailer special deals is maintained at a cooperative network site andconsumers can access at least a subset of the data in the database fromany manufacturer or retailer network site. Thus it makes little or nodifference which site, of many manufacturer and retailer sites, that theconsumer is logged in to when initiating a request. The consumer mayalso request and receive manufacturer offer data and retailer specialdeal data directly from the database at the cooperative site. Use of theinvention, therefore, results in exposure of the manufacturer offers andretailer special deals to many more consumers than in the past. Theseand other aspects of the invention will now be described in more detail.

As shown in FIG. 1, the invention is implemented in the environment of acomputer communication system, such as the Worldwide Web, in whichmultiple computer systems, referred to as Web sites, are interconnectedthrough a complex set of communication links. As is well known,consumers may connect to the Web through personal computers and accessinformation at a variety of selected Web sites. In network terminology,computer systems at a Web site are also referred to as servers, sincethey “serve” data to another computer that requests the information. Therequesting computer is then referred to as the “client.” Web sites thatare pertinent to the present invention include multiple manufacturersites, indicated by reference numeral 10, multiple retailer sites 12,and a cooperative server 14, the latter being referred to in thedrawings and in this description as the SMO (SuperMarkets Online) Webserver. As will be explained in more detail, the SMO server 14,maintains associated database files that may be conveniently categorizedas manufacturer offers 16 and retailer specials 18. The SMO server 14also has access to a graphics library 20 for use in communicating datato the manufacturer or retailer sites 10 and 12.

The comments linking the manufacturer site 10 with the SMO server 14illustrate a typical dialog between a consumer logged in to amanufacturer site and the SMO server. First, the consumer requests alist of retailers (in the consumer's area) that have any manufactureroffers from this particular manufacturer. The SMO server 14 delivers alist offers and a list of retailer names and locations to themanufacturer site 10, which makes these lists immediately available tothe consumer, through a Web browser on the consumer's personal computer.The SMO server 14 may also provide links to the listed retailer sitesfor the consumer to use. The consumer may then select from among theoffers and transmit the selections back to the SMO server 14. Finally,the SMO server 14 delivers details of the selected offer or offers backto the consumer on the manufacturer site 10.

If the consumer logs in to a retailer site 12, a similar dialog takesplace, but may also use the concept of a “personal page” for theconsumer. The personal page, indicated diagrammatically at 22, is aconsumer-specific profile that the consumer may optionally provide atthe SMO server site 14, either by logging in directly to the SMO serveror by logging in indirectly through a retailer site 12. In the personalpage, the consumer list various shopping preferences, which permit theSMO server 14 to provide manufacturer offers that are more specific tothose preferences. In the illustrative dialog shown in FIG. 1, theconsumer first logs in to his or her personal page through the retailersite 12 and requests manufacturer offers. The SMO server 14 delivers alist of targeted or non-targeted manufacturer offers to the consumer,through the retailer site 12. The consumer selects from among themanufacturer offers, and the SMO servers delivers details of theselected offers to the consumer through the retailer server site. Aperformance recap pertaining to the activity with respect to retailerspecials, is periodically transmitted to appropriate manufacturers, asindicated at 24.

FIG. 2 shows in more detail the operations performed at the manufacturersite 10 and the SMO server site 14. As shown in block 30, the consumermay select to have a retailer listing delivered, i.e., a list ofretailers that handle the manufacturer's products. At the SMO site 14,the server checks, as indicated in block 32, to determine if theconsumer's postal (ZIP) code has already been transmitted over the linkfrom the manufacturer site 10. (At some manufacturer sites, the consumermay be asked to provide a ZIP code when logging in.) If not, theconsumer is now asked to enter a ZIP code. If so, this step is bypassed.Once the ZIP code is obtained, the SMO site 14 queries the database 16for a list of retailers in that ZIP code having offers from themanufacturer, as indicated in block 36. The SMO server 14 then formats aretailer list page, as indicated in block 38, and transmits this listpage to the manufacturer site 10. This retailer list is displayedthrough the consumer's network browser, as indicated in block 40. Theconsumer selects a retailer, as indicated in block 42, and in responsethe SMO server 14 generates the complete offers from the database 16, asindicated in block 44. The selected offers are formatted on the Web pageof the SMO site, as indicated in block 46, and this page is viewed and,optionally, printed by the consumer as indicated in block 48, usingstandard features of the consumer's network browser.

FIG. 3 shows in more detail the operations performed at the retailersite 12 and the SMO server site 14 when the consumer logs in at theretailer site. First the consumer requests a manufacturer offer listingfrom the retailer site, as indicated in block 50. The SMO server 14checks, as indicated in block 52, to determine if a ZIP code has alreadybeen transmitted to the server. If not, the consumer is asked to submita ZIP code, as indicated at 54. If so, this step is bypassed. Then theSMO server 14 checks the retailer database 18 for manufacturer offersaccepted by the retailer, as indicated in block 56. A manufacturer offerlist is formatted, as indicated in block 58, and displayed through theconsumer's network browser, as indicated in block 60. The consumer maythen select from among the offers, as indicated in block 62. Theselected offers are then generated in detail from the database 18, asindicated in block 64, formatted on the server Web page, as indicated inblock 66, and viewed or printed through the consumer's network browser,as indicated in block 68.

Operation of the cooperative site is, of course, dependent onmaintenance of the manufacturer and retailer databases 16 and 18 withall of the current manufacturer offers and retailer specials. Optionsfor maintaining the retailer data are shown in FIG. 4. Some retailersmay choose to supply data on their special deals, and related graphicsdata, on a diskette or some other storage medium, as indicated in block70. Data in this form is reformatted by the administrator of the SMOserver 14, as indicated in block 72, and input to the database 18 and20. Other retailers may be in a better position to supply update data inthe form of shelf tag data 74 that they also use to generate printedprice shelf tags for their stores, together with cross-reference data 76needed to complete the current retailer specials data updates. Thesedata would also need to be reformatted, as indicated in block 78, andinput to the databases 18 and 20. Another approach for inputtingretailer specials data is for the retailer to input the data through anInternet input screen, as indicated at 80, the contents of which aretransmitted onto the Internet 82 and downloaded by the SMO server 14 inorder to update the databases 18 and 20.

FIG. 5 shows how manufacturers input update data to the manufactureroffer database 16. In one approach, the manufacturer supplies the dataon input forms 90, which are entered at the SMO site 14, as indicated at92, and transmitted to the databases 16 and 20 by means of an updateprogram 94 executed at the SMO site. Alternatively, the manufacturer mayenter offer data through an Internet form, as indicated at 96, and theSMO server 14 then downloads the manufacturer data from Internet andupdates the databases 16 and 20.

When a consumer agrees to the establishment of a personal page, he orshe may access the page after logging in to a retailer site 12 or thecooperative site 14, using an appropriate password or other securityfeature, and will then encounter a menu structure similar to the oneshown in FIG. 6. First an introductory page 100 is presented and theconsumer will be offered multiple further choices on a displayed “toolbar,” as indicated on the upper row of blocks in FIG. 6. Each tool barbutton takes the consumer to a succession of functions, as indicated bythe columns of blocks in the figure. The tool bar options includeselecting from among product offers 102, selecting retailer specials104, making a personal list of products 106, proceeding to “finalcheckout” 108, selecting one or more available recipes 110, andselecting product information 112.

When product offers are selected (column 102), the consumer may choosefrom a list of product offers and place the selections in a shoppinglist, which is printed as the consumer selects the “final checkout”procedure. Similarly, when retailer specials are selected (column 104),the consumer may choose from a list of retailer specials and add theseto the shopping list. If the “list maker” is selected (column 106), theconsumer may choose a product category, then a sub-category, then aproduct within the sub-category, which is added to the consumer'sshopping list. Similarly, recipes (column 110) and product information(column 112) may be selected and added to the consumer's shopping list.The final checkout function (column 108) allows the consumer to select aretailer and print a final shopping list to take to the store.

As it pertains to the present invention, the personal page feature,presents the consumer with manufacturer offers and retailer specialsthat are personalized as a result of the consumer's having used thepersonal page to better define his or her shopping preferences. Thelists of manufacturer offers and retailer specials may also bepersonalized as a result of the consumer's prior shopping activity. As aresult, the personal page allows the presentation of product offers andretailer specials to be focused on individual consumers, based on theirshopping preferences expressed in the personal page or by prior shoppingactivity.

The system specifics for gathering shopping activity data will depend onvarious design details. In brief, the shopping behavior of consumers isroutinely tracked if the consumers provide some form of uniqueidentification during purchase transactions, such as a check-cashingcard, a magnetically encoded check, a frequent shopper card, or otherform of identification. The purchase of any number of items can then beassociated with the specific consumer id., and a systems administratormaintains a database of consumer purchase histories. When a consumerlogs in to the system, he or she may voluntarily supply the consumer id,used for in-store purchases. The consumer may be rewarded in some mannerfor supplying this information. The consumer id, will be used for allsubsequent sessions in which the consumer logs in to the site Once thelinkage is established, the consumer purchase history data or targetedincentives needed to support this capability of the invention istransferred from the shopper purchase history system to the on-linesystem of the present invention, so that, when the consumer visits thesite, a targeted incentive may be delivered based on a selected event,or a combination of events, in the consumer's past shopping history.

It will be understood that each of the cooperating retailer andmanufacturer sites 12 and 10 must be appropriately designed or modifiedto provide the necessary linkages to the cooperative (SMO) site 14 forconsumers logging in to those sites. Specifically, when a consumer logsin to a manufacturer site 10 looking for a specific product, themanufacturer site obtains from the cooperative site a list of retailersthat carry this product, and presents the list to the consumer. Themanufacturer site 10 further interacts with the consumer to obtain hisor her selection of offers and then presents the details of these offersto the consumer, who remains unaware that the data are being suppliedfrom the cooperative site. Similarly, each cooperating retailer sitemust present the consumer with a list of manufacturer offers obtainedfrom the cooperative site 14, and then present details of the selectedoffers to the consumer. Again, the consumer remains unaware that thedata are being supplied from the cooperative site.

The cooperative networking aspect of the invention is enhanced by use ofthe personal page feature made available to consumers who log in to thecooperative site 14 or to a retailer site 10. The personal page, whichis a feature that is invoked only at the option of the consumer,provides a mechanism for the SMO server 14 to generate more focused orpersonalized manufacturer offers. Once a consumer consents to theestablishment of a personal page by supplying requested personal,demographic or other information, the SMO server 14 maintains a databasefor the specific consumer, including the consumer's personal preferencesfor products, as expressed by the consumer when requested, or asindicated by the consumer's prior shopping activity. In accordance withthis aspect of the present invention, a consumer who has logged in tothe system is asked to supply a consumer id, or code used for in-storepurchases. The consumer id, may be a check-cashing card number, or otherform of identification that allows the system to access the consumer'spurchasing history, and then select one or more manufacturer's offersbased on some aspect of the consumer's prior shopping history. Theselected offer or offers are transmitted to the consumer in response toa request for a list of manufacturer offers available at a particularretailer.

In accordance with another important aspect of the invention, productincentives or other promotional information can be delivered directly toa consumer logged in to any commercial site, such as, a manufacturer'sor retailer's site, through use of a “banner” displayed at that site.The banner provides an effective “short-cut” to the promotionalinformation or incentive offer advertised in the banner. The consumerdoes not need to browse through a list of offers or first find a list ofretailers. He or she visits a commercial Web Site, as indicated at 120(FIG. 7), and simply “clicks” on the banner, as indicated in block 122.The banner typically advertises a single product incentive. This actionautomatically links the consumer to the SMO server site (14, FIG. 1),which provides the incentive to the consumer. Although the incentivecould be provided unconditionally, in the presently preferred embodimentof the invention the “banner” feature provides incentives only toconsumers who have registered as “members.” Thus the SMO server firstchecks to determine if the consumer making the request is a member, asindicated in block 124. This determination can be made using any ofvarious available techniques, such as checking the consumer's electronicmail address. Another technique is to make use of a “cookie,” which is asmall data record stored by the server in the consumer's computer, tohelp identify or provide information about the consumer on subsequentconnections to the same site If the consumer is not a member, he or sheis asked to provide a name, address, and a limited amount of demographicinformation, as indicated in block 126. Optionally, the consumer mayprovide a frequent shopper card number. This information is then used toupdate the consumer profile database 128, as indicated in block 130. Ifthe consumer is already registered, the steps of registration andprofile updating (blocks 126 and 128) are bypassed. Availability of thepromotion or incentive may also be conditioned on eligibility, based ondemographic or other consumer profile targeting parameters, as indicatedin block 132. Finally, the incentive, in the form of a coupon or savingsticket, is displayed on the consumer's computer display, as indicated inblock 134. The savings ticket is a document or record providing evidencethat the consumer visited the site and qualified for an award. Thesavings ticket, which may also be described as a token, may also beprinted, or recorded electronically or otherwise by the consumer, asindicated in block 136. At the end of this processing, the consumer isreturned to the original commercial site from which the “banner” requestwas made, as indicated in block 138.

It will be appreciated from the foregoing that the present inventionrepresents a significant advance in systems for the delivery of shoppingoffers, incentives and other information through a communicationnetwork, such as the Worldwide Web. In particular, the cooperativeinterconnection of manufacturer sites, retailer sites and a cooperativesite allows consumers to review and select product offers regardless ofwhether logged in to a manufacturer site, a retailer site or thecooperative site. It will also be appreciated that, although a specificembodiment of the invention has been described for purposes ofillustration, various modifications may be made without departing fromthe spirit and scope of the invention. Accordingly, the invention shouldnot be limited except as by the appended claims.

We claim:
 1. A method for distributing product offers and otherinformation to consumers over a communication network, the method beingimplemented on a processor programmed by one or more computer programinstructions, the method comprising: causing, by the processor, firstinformation related to a plurality of manufacturer offers to be storedin a database associated with a cooperative communication network site;causing, by the processor, second information related to a plurality ofretailer special deals to be stored in the database associated with thecooperative communication network site; receiving, by the processor, arequest associated with a consumer communication node that iscommunicably coupled to a retailer network site, a manufacturer networksite, or another independently administered site; and providing, by theprocessor, at least a portion of the first information related to theplurality of manufacturer offers from the database and at least aportion of the second information related to the plurality of retailerspecial deals from the database in response to the request such that theportion of the first information and the portion of the secondinformation are both presented to the consumer communication node,wherein the portion of the first information and the portion of thesecond information are transmitted to the consumer communication nodewhile the consumer communication node is communicably coupled to theretailer network site, the manufacturer network site, or the otherindependently administered site but without regard to which one of theretailer network site, the manufacturer network site, or the otherindependently administered site that the consumer communication node iscommunicably coupled.
 2. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein therequest is received from the manufacturer network site, and wherein therequest comprises information that indicates a geographic location, themethod further comprising: identifying, based on the geographiclocation, retailers that individually offer at least one retailerspecial deal that relates to a manufacturer offer; providing ageographically limited list of the identified retailers; receiving aselection of at least a first retailer from the consumer through themanufacturer network site; and transmitting the at least one retailerspecial deal offered by the first retailer to the manufacturer networksite.
 3. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein the request is receivedfrom the manufacturer network site, and wherein the request comprisesinformation that indicates a geographic location, the method furthercomprising: identifying, based on the geographic location, retailersthat individually offer at least one retailer special deal that relatesto a manufacturer offer; providing a geographically limited list of theidentified retailers; receiving a selection of at least a first retailerfrom the consumer through the manufacturer network site; and linking theconsumer directly to a retailer network site of the first retailer toview available offers.
 4. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein therequest is received from the retailer network site, the method furthercomprising providing a list of manufacturer offers available at aretailer that is associated with the retailer network site; receiving aselection of a manufacturer offer from the consumer through the retailernetwork site; and transmitting information associated with the selectedmanufacturer offer to the retailer network site.
 5. A method as definedin claim 4, wherein providing the list of manufacturer offers includes:obtaining consumer preference information previously established by theconsumer; and including in the provided list of manufacturer offers atleast some manufacturer offers that are specific to the consumer basedon the consumer preference information.
 6. A method as defined in claim4, wherein providing the list of manufacturer offers includes: receivingan identification code used by the consumer in making purchases; usingthe consumer identification code to retrieve information pertaining tothe consumer's prior shopping behavior; and including in the providedlist of manufacturer offers at least some manufacturer offers that arespecific to the consumer based on the retrieved information pertainingto the consumer's prior shopping behavior.
 7. A method as defined inclaim 4, wherein providing the list of manufacturer offers includes:obtaining consumer-identifying data; retrieving information based on theconsumer-identifying data; and including in the provided list ofmanufacturer offers at least some manufacturer offers that are specificto the consumer based on the retrieved information.
 8. A method asdefined in claim 7, wherein retrieving information includes retrievingdemographic information pertaining to the consumer.
 9. A method asdefined in claim 7, wherein retrieving information includes retrievingcustomer profile information previously provided by the consumer.
 10. Amethod as defined in claim 7, wherein retrieving information includesretrieving prior purchasing behavior information based on prior storevisits by the consumer.
 11. A method as defined in claim 1, the methodfurther comprising: receiving a postal code associated with theconsumer; and customizing the provided information based on the postalcode.
 12. A method as defined in claim 1, the method further comprising:receiving a postal code associated with the consumer; and customizingthe provided information based on the postal code.
 13. A system fordistributing product offers and other information to consumers over acommunication network, the system comprising: a processor programmedwith one or more computer program instructions configured to: causefirst information related to a plurality of manufacturer offers to bestored in a database associated with a cooperative communication networksite; cause second information related to a plurality of retailerspecial deals to be stored in the database associated with thecooperative communication network site; receive a request associatedwith a consumer communication node that is communicably coupled to aretailer network site, a manufacturer network site, or anotherindependently administered site; and provide at least a portion of thefirst information related to the plurality of manufacturer offers fromthe database and at least a portion of the second information related tothe plurality of retailer special deals from the database in response tothe request such that the portion of the first information and theportion of the second information are both presented to the consumercommunication node, wherein the portion of the first information and theportion of the second information are transmitted to the consumercommunication node while the consumer communication node is communicablycoupled to the retailer network site, the manufacturer network site, orthe other independently administered site but without regard to whichone of the retailer network site, the manufacturer network site, or theother independently administered site that the consumer communicationnode is communicably coupled.
 14. The method of claim 1, wherein thefirst information includes at least a first coupon from a firstmanufacturer that relates to a particular item of the firstmanufacturer, and wherein the second information includes at least afirst retailer special deal related to the particular item, wherein thefirst retailer offers for sale the particular item.
 15. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the portion of the first information and the portion ofthe second information is together or separately transmitted to theconsumer communication node.
 16. The method of claim 1, wherein thefirst information includes at least a first coupon from a firstmanufacturer that relates to a particular item of the firstmanufacturer, wherein the first retailer offers for sale the particularitem.
 17. The system of claim 13, wherein the first information includesat least a first coupon from a first manufacturer that relates to aparticular item of the first manufacturer, and wherein the secondinformation includes at least a first retailer special deal related tothe particular item, wherein the first retailer offers for sale theparticular item.